I remember reading that for Once Upon a Time in the West, Sergio Leone and co. wanted to make a western rooted in the reality of the old west—but of course, they just swapped one myth for another. Hellman succeeds in a way they didn't: his west is properly barren, a place of separation and moral indifference. The film is too early a draft for masterpiece status. But I'd love to see someone continue in this direction.

Justice and morality are like the dust kicked up by Wes' horse at the end of Ride in the Whirlwind. All events and set pieces speak to a certain futility in the lives of our main and side characters, whose daily lives merely occupy the body and mind as we hurdle towards the inevitable.

A western as barren as the west itself, stripped of all but the basics: cowboys, posses, shootouts, landscapes; where the bare necessity and breathtaking urgency of Hellman’s shooting style matches the chaotic, life-and-death world created within the confines of the film; here, riding off into the sunset at the end is barely a glimmer amidst the bleakness.